Defense:
0

Utility:
9

Introduction

Ezreal is a highly versatile champion who can play every role except support. When built AD, he is a menace in laning phase with his attack speed slow and insane early damage output. AP Ezreal has trouble until he gets his deathcap and lichbane out, but after those two items your burst becomes completely unreal.

Ezreal has been the only character I play since I bought him months before writing this guide. I've built him everything from AP to AD to troll, and I've experimented a lot with the items for each. This is essentially a culmination of everything I've learned and an explanation for why I differ from the generic [triforce->bloodthirster] build.

This guide is still likely to be a work in progress, and could forever remain that way until I get motivated to work on it again.

AD Ezreal

When built AD, Ezreal can go to any lane and is nigh impossible to counter except when he goes top. His laning presence is terrifying, and his level 1 damage output trumps that of any other AD Carry. AD Ezreal should be played aggressively in lane, because his attack speed debuff makes it so few AD carries can't effectively retaliate, and his damage output is so high at low levels. If you can get off a few mystic shots while the opponents are still level one or two you can easily win the lane.

AD Ezreal cannot carry as hard as carries like Vayne and Kog'maw, but he does not fall off so long as you do not build him poorly.

Good Supports: Alistar, Taric, Leona, Blitzcrank, Lulu.

Runes (AD)

The runes I take are pretty generic. Flat armor seals help reduce damage from the enemy AD carry bottom lane. I take MR per level glyphs because unless you're against a lulu or something you most likely won't be taking much magic damage until teamfights occur. Flat AD marks and quints scale well with Ezreal's mystic shot, and make last hitting a lot easier for people who are bad at it.

Alternatively, you can take armor penetration for your marks, and I would suggest this to people who are familiar with how to last hit.

Masteries (AD)

I prioritize lethality over havoc because if you actually work out the math for havoc you're getting next to nothing in bonus damage.

Normally I grab 9 points in utility for Runic Affinity when I'm playing with my friends because I can get red buff. When I play with randoms however, I grab 9 points into defense instead because my teamates never let me have red :-(.

Items (AD)

Boot 3 pot: It really is the best opening for 90% of situations unless you're jungling or top laning. You "can" grab a Doran Blade if you have a high sustain lane with someone like Soraka, but I don't recommend it. Boot 3 pot lets you out-harass and out-chase people who went dorans first, and makes you much safer against jungle ganks.

Infinity Edge: You need this item to carry, you cannot keep up in DPS without it. So many Ezreal builds grab this item as late as possible which is the worst thing you could do. The extra 20 damage you would get on your Q is not worth gimping your carry potential until super late game.

Phantom Dancer: Synergizes well with the above more than a triforce would due to more attack speed and more crit chance. This is fairly cookie-cutter if you're playing carries like Graves, but many Ezreal and Corki players like to opt for a triforce instead.

Last Whisper: Always get this before your bloodthirster. If you need the extra sustain from bloodthirster just get a vampiric scepter. As an AD Carry you are going to be mostly attacking tanks, and you get much more damage output from this then you would a bloodthirster assuming your target has more than about 90 armor, which is base for most bruisers.

The Bloodthirster: Gives a lot of damage, that's the #1 reason to take it.

Guardian Angel: This is a bad item choice if your team is composed of goldfish. What is supposed to happen is in the event that you die, five seconds later you hop back into action and lifesteal all your hit points back.

2nd Phantom Dancer: Late game you have the option of selling your berserker greaves for another Phantom Dancer. I do this all the time when I get to this point of the game. It pushes your crit chance to a total of 93% with an elixer of agility.

Elixers: If you don't have inventory space, it automatically drinks these. Always take them when you are full build.

Other Item Choices

Trinity Force or triforce for short: This is still an okay item on Ezreal, it makes your midgame strong but your lategame suffers for it. If you do grab a triforce take it after your infinity edge. Another misconception many have is that sheen is based off their total damage. The sheen proc from your triforce is only giving you an extra 150 damage every 3 seconds. You can easily reach 260 every attack from a fully stacked bloodthirster on crits, and you can easily attack 6 times in the 3 seconds between sheen procs. Since Sheen proc can't crit, this item is best used on bruisers with short cooldowns.

Banshees Veil: Get this if you're having problems with burst mages like Leblanc. It saves lives!

Quicksilver Sash: A great pick for players with the reaction timing to make it useful, wouldn't recommend it to newbies.

Mercury Treads: Also good for reducing crowd control if you really need the extra survivability.

Black Cleaver: A highly situational item that I rage whenever I see as the first item in someone's build. The only time a black cleaver is really useful on an ad carry is if you're playing against people who are bad and don't build armor for some reason. In this scenario, you swap your last whisper for this.

Skill Sequence (AD)

Max Q for sick damage in lane. Your ability to play AD Ezreal relies on your precision with this skill.

- Q falls off late game due to not being able to crit.

- It automatically applies on-hit effects such as Sheen proc and red buff.

- Fire this off into a bush before you walk into said bush, you will both be able to see the skillshot hit something and you will gain 1 stack of your passive.

W is maxed second because it makes it impossible for enemy carries to trade with you when you nullify their damage output.

- Late game, W will not be used on the enemy carry because your positioning is hopefully not terrible enough that you will be within range to W the enemy carry.

E at level 2 to pick up early kills or escape from ganks. Careful about using it offensively though, because I've had so many situations where I'd arcane shift to get a kill then the jungler comes in to gank.

- NEVER USE YOUR E OFFENSIVELY IN TEAMFIGHTS, IF ANYBODY DIVES AFTER YOU AND YOUR E IS ON COOLDOWN YOU ARE A DEAD EZREAL

- Arcane Shift can be used to dodge blitzcrank pulls with good reaction speed and careful timing, even if you are hit by the pull you will go where you jumped to and only be stunned.

- Manacosts are high, don't spam this in lane except when using it to pick up kills or dodge skillshots that might otherwise be hazardous to your health.

Trueshot Barrage

This skill is so sick it deserved its own chapter. You can steal baron with it, pick up kills from across the map, steal buff camps and kill the enemy jungler, and punish the enemy team for bad positioning by hitting them all with your thousand damage banana. Phreak uses Ezreal's ultimate to clear minion waves. This should only be done if you're feeling particularly trollish.

It's on like a 60 second cooldown, if you suspect you might be able to snipe somebody with it then by all means throw your golden banana at them.

How to win your lane

AD Ezreal is a hard character to master, he takes a lot of practice and has a difficult play style. Even if you land all his skillshots, you still have to leverage his powerful early game over enemy carries to keep up. To do this you have to play aggressive.

Other tips in lane are only attack a minion if that attack will result in its last hit. Autoattacking minions makes you both easy to hit with skillshots like Blitzcrank's rocket grab and pushes the lane so that the enemy can safely farm and your jungler cannot gank your lane.

If you win your lane early, you need to try zoning the enemy carry. Every time they get within range of the creeps shoot them in the face with a mystic shot.

Your support should always be warding for you, there is never an excuse to not have dragon & tribush (bush above the tower warded)

If you are mid lane, harass like crazy early on. Things get more difficult as mages start to scale with levels, so you have to shut them down while you are both low.

Top lane is iffy, I haven't played very much Ezreal top lane and I feel like other characters can do it much better than he can. That being said, Ezreal works incredible against bruisers with suboptimal gap closers like singed, just auto attack him every time he tries to get minion kills and kite him if he chases after you. Always ward top lane, one death from a gank can easily shut you down. Top is the most snowbally lane in the game presently.

Jungle Ezreal is kind of a joke, but it works. There's a guide on mobafire for it somewhere, and Stonewall008 has a video on youtube showing the jungle path. Ezreal's mystic shot procs redbuff, and hes a lot of fun to play jungle. I would recommend Kayle or Jayce instead if you want a ranged carry out of the jungle. Ezreal jungle is reliant on getting off lots of successful ganks to scale well into late game, because farming jungle creeps doesn't give you much gold to afford all of your expensive items.

Practice, you're definitely going to fail for a lot of your early games, but you have to keep trying. Ezreal is one of the most fun and rewarding champions to those who get good with him, and hes versatile enough that you're almost always going to be able to play him.

League of Legends is a team based, real time strategy game set in a mythical world of swords & magic where epic battles decide the fate of mystical nations. Game players take on the role of a Summoner who conjures and controls champions to fight for them at the Institute of War. During game play champions gain experience and items to enhance their skills and abilities. How players develop and play their champions can be the difference between a crushing defeat or a glorious victory!